Housing is a consumption good, an important savings vehicle, as well as a self-insurance mechanism for most households. Such investments typically require borrowing from banks and other financial institutions, leading to a large and significant mortgage market in most countries of the world. Therefore, a stable housing market with a sustainable growth trajectory is crucial in promoting consumer lifetime welfare, stimulating economic growth, as well as maintaining a healthy and stable financial system. Despite the prevalent practice of housing market regulations, there are many heavily debated questions yet remain unresolved. First, are these regulatory practices effective in achieving the original objectives? Second, are there any unintended consequences (or externalities)? Finally, are there alternative and better (regulatory) approaches? These questions form the central theme of this project. My co-authors and I exploit a unique policy measure in Singapore that differentially targeted second (or investment) homes to understand the effects and the transmission channel of a tightening policy in the mortgage market. We analyse the differential selection and treatment effects across synthetic cohorts of loans issued within adjacent time windows before and after the policy implementation and trace credit outcomes up to 18 months thereafter. We will study the effect of the credit tightening policy measure on the mortgage borrower default (or delinquency) behaviour.

The crisis of confidence in science has largely centred on psychology, medicine, and experimental research. However, there are reasons to be concerned about the robustness of findings from archival research in management. These include the poor availability of data for re-analysis due to confidentiality concerns, non-disclosure agreements with private companies, loss, and investigator unwillingness, and anecdotal cases of findings collapsing when errors are corrected and alternative analyses are attempted. This research leverages an expansive longitudinal archival data set to examine if findings from a given span of years emerge in adjacent spans of years using the same analytic approach in the original investigation. We conduct “robustness + extension” analyses to examine the extent to which the findings do or do not extend to similar but distinct contexts. Importantly, this is a test of the generalisability, not replicability of archival findings.

At the societal level, innovation and creativity are essential for economic growth and social progress. They are also arguably key enablers of and contribute to performance, entrepreneurship, growth, and competitiveness. Given the importance of employee creativity and innovation, this study would like to address two unique predictors of employee creativity, as well as the potential dark side of the employee creativity. Research traditionally focus on predictors at the individual level (personality, motivation) and organisational level (organisational structure and policy). Yet, very few have explored one of the most salient predictors – the physical environment and an individual’s daily activities. This study examines how the digitalised nature (nature present using digital format) can affect employees’ routine and creative performance. The other predictor that I look at is the contagious (or threatening) effect of leader creativity on employee creativity. Finally, this study will examine whether a leader’s creative performance could potential entitle employees’ norm-breaking behaviours (deviant and unethical behaviours).

While more organisations adopt sustainable practices, research is divided on the impact of environmental performance on organisational performance. In this study, we use secondary data to examine the relationship between environmental performance (direct and indirect emissions) with operational performance (cost efficiency and productivity). We also examine the role of environmental management systems and quality management in moderating the relationships.

The world economy is becoming increasingly digital creating both opportunities and challenges for businesses in Asia. We propose to establish a research platform between NUS Business School and Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management so that faculty and PhD students can initiate regular contact, exchange information and propose joint research projects about the digital transformation of the world economy in China and the ASEAN region. The proposed exchange platform will be on WeChat. To make the proposed platform more effective, we have identified the following organizations as the key champions of this initiative. Within NUS, we have secured the support of the Asia Accounting Research Center (AARC) and the Centre for Business Analytics. Within Tsinghua University, we have secured the support of the School of Economics and Management’s Center for Internet Development and Governance (CIDG). We will also organize two academic conferences in the next two years (one in China and one in Singapore) to promote research on the digital economy in Asia. Our hope is to use this initiative to encourage interested faculty members and PhD students from both sides to develop joint research proposals for funding from either China or Singapore.

Given the rise in international trade and development in logistics, studying how firm-level networks introduce vulnerabilities is important for understanding a firm’s direct and indirect risk exposures in supply chains. The paper presents a new channel for operational and financial risk management. This project aims to identify different sources of risk affecting a firm’s financial policy and supply chain decisions. A firm’s capital structure and supply chain decisions may be intertwined because it establishes supply and customer relationships in order to produce. The absence of a unified framework to study both leverage and supply chain network formation has resulted in disjointed literature. In addition, studying either leverage or supply chain variables in isolation misses equilibrium pricing and quantity effects that propagate through the entire network.

While co-working spaces were initially established to provide a supportive environment for mobile professionals or freelance consultants to work alongside one another, a new generation of co-working spaces such as ecosystem builders, has emerged with a different strategic focus and operating model. This new generation of co-working spaces has been regarded by policy makers as an important part of the ecosystem in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation. This study aims to investigate the role and impact of co-working spaces on the innovation performance of its entrepreneurial members.

To generate and compete for product demand, firms usually promote product information (product functionality, product comparisons, product quality, selling price, warranty and returns policies, etc.) to create consumer awareness and to help consumers to make informed purchasing decisions. Besides “product promotion information”, most firms are tight-lipped about supply chain and cost related information. However, we are intrigued by the radical strategy implemented by a San Francisco-based apparel retailer Everlane.com who discloses its supply chain (input) costs (material and labour costs) as well as the average profit margin by other firms selling similar items. In general, the manufacturing cost of a product is a closely-guarded secret for two major concerns: (1) cost transparency can make a firm more vulnerable to competition; and (2) cost transparency can create unhappy consumers who feel that the firm’s profit margin is unreasonably high (i.e., the selling price is too high relative to the manufacturing cost). While many firms are keeping their cost information as trade secrets, third-party infomediaries now offer various product cost information online. As more infomediaries are offering cost estimates about different products, we wonder if a firm should disclose its cost information voluntarily. In this project, we examine the following research questions. Firstly, does a monopoly benefit from voluntary cost transparency? If so, what are the key market parameters that determine the extent of the benefit? Secondly, under what conditions would competing firms adopt voluntary cost transparency? Would cost transparency undermine the competitiveness of the firm? To this end, we first develop a theoretical framework to examine if firms have incentives to adopt voluntarily cost transparency in a monopolistic setting. We then extend our analysis to a competitive setting. To validate our theoretical findings, we report on the results of our experimental findings.

A central question in human development and policy design is how environmental factors and interventions at different stages shape individuals’ human capital. This project investigates the long-run effect of adolescent environment on non-cognitive skills. We will use exogenous shocks that influence individuals’ adolescent environment, such as the historical episode of Cultural Revolution in China, where millions of teenagers were forced to leave their urban homes and life to work in the countryside, to establish a causal link between adolescent experience and long-run non-cognitive outcomes, including their core beliefs, preferences, and health outcomes.

Shadow banking, or credit intermediation outside the formal banking system, has continued to evolve since the 2007–09 Global Financial Crisis. The shadow banking sector in China has been growing by more than 20% per year from 2007 to 2017. Due to data limitations, not much is known about the cause of this rapid growth or the potential impact it has on financial and economic stability. This study aims at filling this gap in the literature by examining micro-level data compiled from primary sources. I identify shadow banking activities of both regulated banks and non-financial firms in this project and plan to study their performances and risks. With the Chinese economy is at the forefront of some of the crucial developments in this area, this study can also shed light on the economics of shadow banking.